Retaining device for sewing-machin e covers



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1'.

I I s. H. WHEELER. I RETAINING DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINE GOVERS.

No. 557,925. Patented Apr. 7, 1896.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheet sSheet 2. E s. H. WEEELEE. v

RETAINING DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINE COVERS.

Patented Apr. "7, 1896.

UNITED STATES ATENT FFICE.

SAMUEL H. WHEELER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE WHEELER & WILSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

RETAINING DEVICE FOR SEWING-MACHINE COVERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,925, dated April '7, 1896.

Application filed March 2, 1894. Serial No. 502,096. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: I I Be it known that I, SAMUEL H. WHEELER, of Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, have invented an Improvement in Retainers for Sewing-Machine Covers, of which the following description, in connectionwith the accompanying drawings,is a specification, like letters and figures on the drawings representing like parts.

Many users of sewing-machines require a cover to protect the head of the machine when not in use, and these covers, made of wood, are usually provided with lugs or feet to enter sockets in the top of the cabinet, and have locks to engage a lock-plate also attached to the said top. I desire to dispense with the sockets and lock-plate which have to be let into the top of the cabinet and also to dispense with the usual lock and the lugs or feet. To efiect this object, I have provided the cover with a retaining device that engages a portion of the top of the machine rather than a part of the cabinet or its top or the cloth-plate or foot-plate of the machine.

My invention may be carried out in many different forms, as will be hereinafter described.

My invention consists, essentially, in the combination, with the upper part of the head of a sewing-machine and its cover, of a retaining device to connect said cover to said head. i

Figure 1 is a partly sectional elevation of one form of sewing-machine head and cover and cover-retainer containing my invention. Fig. 2 is a section on a smaller scale in the line as, Fig. 1, looking to the left; Fig. 3, a section on the same line, looking to the right; Fig. 4, a section below the line .00, Fig. 1, with the wheel in elevation; and Figs. 5 to 9, inclusive, are transverse sections of the upper parts of a cover and sewing-machine head,

illustrating as many different modifications of I Referring to the drawings, Arepresents the top of a sewing-machine cabinet, it in practice being supported upon any usual legs, (not shown B, the head of a sewing-machine, and C the cover to completely inclose said head. These parts are and may be all as usual.

I The lower edges of the cover will in practice be provided with india-rubber or other non-metallic buffers a, which will simply rest on the top of the table, their use being solely to prevent marring the finish of the top.

' The cover is in no way directly connected with the table or with the cloth-plate or footplate of the machine.

The cover contains within it, near one end, a crotch or bar Z1 which embraces snugly a part of the overhanging arm of the head, preferably near its end, and at the opposite end of the cover there are two like lugs I1 having at their inner sides two grooves to embrace a part of the usual balance-wheel a of the machine. These devices 79 b are very desirable and aid in preventing any twisting of the cover on or with relation to the head of the machine, and, while they do not lock the cover to the machine, each or both con stitute positioning devices for the cover.

As stated, the chief object of my invention is to provide the cover with a retaining device which, cooperating with the machine head or a part mounted thereon wholly above the cloth-plate or bed of the machine, will keep the cover in place.

In the form of my invention illustrated in Fig. 1, Z? constitutes a retaining device, represented as a bent or cranked rod, one end of which is exposed to be engaged by a suitable key I), (shown best in Fig. 3,) said key being, preferably, one with a shank other than round to engage a correspondingly-shaped recess of the retaining device, or the converse would operate equally as well.

In Fig. 1 the head of the machine has fixed upon it a stand b upon which is pivoted at b a spool-pin b, said spool-pin thus being atprojection 12 which is adapted to be engaged by the retaining device. The form in which I have represented my invention in Fig. 1 is quite desirable; but my invention may be carried out in many other ways by the exercise only of mechanical skill, and I propose now to show some of these different ways.

Referring to Fig. 11, I have shown a modified form of spool-pin b ,it having a shoulder Z2 with which may cooperate the retaining device I).

It will be understood that when the retaining device is turned aside, as in dotted lines at the right in Fig. 1, so that its cranked part is free from the influence of the projection or shoulder, however located on the machinehead above the cloth-plate, the cover may readily be lifted off the head of the machine; but when the cover is to be kept in place the retaining device will be turned until its cranked portion engages the under side of the block or projection, the retaining device being under the control of the key.

In the modification Fig. 5, D is supposed to represent part of the overhanging arm of the head of the machine, and D the cover, having a stand or bracket D through which is extended a rock-shaft D having a projecting finger D which enters a slot in or engages a part of the overhanging arm, said shaft D being under the control of a suitable key, which may be put through a suitable keyhole at the top of the cover.

In the modification Fig. 6, F represents the cover, and F may represent the overhanging arm of the head of the machine, and f the retaining device, it being represented as an L- shaped finger connected with a short rockshaft f, adapted to be engaged by a key and turned into the dotted-line position when the cover is to be removed and to occupy the fullline position when the cover is to be fastened to the head of the machine.

In the modification Fig. 7, G may represent the cover; G, the overhanging arm of the head of the machine, the retaining device consisting, essentially, of a spring g, having a shoulder g, a pull-key g in the shape of a rod being connected with said spring-like retaining device to pull the same away from under the overhanging arm when it is desired to remove the cover, the spring readily passing the overhanging arm when the cover is'being applied to the head of the machine and slipping automatically under the said arm.

In the modification Fig. 8, I represents the cover; I, part of the overhanging arm of the machine; 2', a dog pivoted at 2 upon one end of a spring-arm 1', attached at t to the under side of the cover, a second spring 2' having a buffer 3, being joined to the interior of the cover at 4. represents a rock-shaftmounted in suitable bearings and shaped at one end to be engaged, as described, by a key, said rock-shaft having fast upon it a cam 6, suitably shaped so that when the rock shaft is turned by the key into the full-line position its cam 6 will act upon the upper end of the retaining device 1 and cause the lower end of said retaining device 1 to engage aportion of the head of the machine-as, for example, the overhanging arm I. When the cam 6 is not forced against the retaining device, as indicated by the dotted lines, in the direction indicated in Fig. 8, then the upper end of the retaining device will be moved in the direc tion of the arrow near it by asuitable spring 12, connected at one end with the pivot 2 and acting upon a pin or projection at one side of the retaining device, the retaining device when freed from the influence of the cam 6 occupying the dotted-line position shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 9 shows yet another modification, wherein the retaining device m is shown as a dog mounted upon a short rock-shaft m, supported just inside the end of the cover, said rock-shaft being accessible, as described of the retaining device in Fig. 1, by akcy from outside the cover.

In the modification Fig. 9 the circular line m is supposed to represent the inner hub end of the hand-wheel of the machine, and m two guides connected to the inside of the cover and acting on either side of the hub of the hand-wheel, said retaining device when in the position Fig. 9 serving to lock the cover in place but the retaining device may be turned over to the left by the key, thus freeing the retaining device from the head of the machine.

In Fig. 10, n is supposed to represent the cover, and n the head of the machine, said head having a projection 42 which is adapted to be engaged by a spring-controlled retainer a herein represented as an elbow-lever, the spring n supported at one end on the cover and acting at its other end against the inner end of the retaining device causing the same normally to engage the projection 12*, and to remove the cover the operator will push down upon the raised end of the retainer, thus removing its inner end from engagement with the projection 02 The retaining device, besides acting as a lock to prevent the lifting of the cover, also, by striking against a part attached to or forming part of the head, serves as one member of a stop to determine the longitudinal position of the cover on the head of the machine, so that the inner end of the cover will not 0011- tact with the ends of the head in attempts to put the cover squarely on the machine and cover its bed-plate.

I do not claim a sewing-machine cover provided at its lower end with a catch to engage a projection forming part of the top of the table or of the cloth-plate or of the foot part or plate of the machine; but in my invention the cover-retaining device is arranged within the upper part of the cover and engages some portion of or upon the upper parts of the machine-head.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A sewing-machine-inclosing cover provided at or near its upper part with a retaining device adapted to engage a shoulder or projection at the upper end of the sewing-machine head Wholly above vthe cloth-plate of the seW- ing-machine, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to thls specification in the presence of 10 two subscribing witnesses.

. SAMUEL H. WHEELER.

Witnesses:

ISAAC HOLDEN, A. E. PORTER. 

